


i won't take any charity

by fightfil



Series: The Promised Land (A RWBY College Basketball AU) [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Basketball, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23731675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fightfil/pseuds/fightfil
Summary: For the two biggest stars on Solitas, it was supposed to be a bit of harmless fun. A few minutes on the court, a couple hours among the crowds and the media, and a few hundred thousand lien raised for charities.If only there weren'thistorybetween them. If only Weiss Schnee's impeccable record on the court would tolerate a single blemish. If only Pyrrha's athletic exceptionalism had translated to team success on the biggest stage. If only it didn't feel like there were higher stakes now than in the championship game. If only the both of them could pretend to get along for a single second.
Relationships: Pyrrha Nikos/Weiss Schnee
Series: The Promised Land (A RWBY College Basketball AU) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1709344
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	i won't take any charity

“Playing for the Polendina Foundation is the Solitas Cup MVP, Atlas’ finest, standing five-foot-three, is Weiss Schnee! Please welcome the star from Eryx Prep!”

Moments later the cheers started. They were loud enough, Pyrrha thought, but, fell short of her expectations based on Weiss’ and the size of the crowd this event usually demanded. The “ice queen” was electrifying, no doubt, but her ego and frosty attitude turned off more than her share of fans.

“Her opponent tonight brings you a rematch of the Solitas Cup final! She’s playing for Dust in the Wind, supporting homeless youth across Mantle! Please welcome Argus’ Miss Basketball, the MVP of the Anima League, and the most coveted member of this year’s recruitment class, PyrrrRRHAAAA NIIIIIKOssss!” The emcee, apparently, was unafraid to make his allegiances known. And the cheers started even before she jogged out of the locker room onto the court. She stood at midcourt for a few moments, giving a perfunctory wave to the crowd, before directing her attentions to the game and opponent.

Her proffered hand was rejected, preferring a curtsey to the far more reasonable handshake. That of course, made any response awkward, with her hand now stupidly extended, hanging in empty air. Withdrawing it, she presented her best approximation of the gesture the white-haired girl had used to snub her.

Then the pair turned to face the emcee, standing on court with a mic’d headset and a coin in hand. “Remember that this game will be played to 15 points, with twos and threes. Shooter keeps makes. There is a 15,000 lien prize going to the charity of the winner, so we need you all to pump these ladies up by cheering as loud as you can!” With the mic off, he addressed the two of them directly. “Alright, I’m going to flip this coin, and Weiss will choose heads or tails. If she gets it right, she’ll start with possession, otherwise Pyrrha will. Got it?”

They both nodded their affirmative. A “Tails!” exclamation at the apex of the coin’s flight left the ball in Weiss’ hands as they set up at the top of the three-point arc. With a quick exchange of the ball to start play, she set to work. Her dribbles set a percussive rhythm, forcing a defensive step back to prepare for any sudden movement.

The redhead’s reaction wasn’t quick enough when the smaller player pounced on a misplaced foot and darted towards the basket. Just like that, she was down 2-0.

Weiss collected the ball after her made basket and passed it to her for the check-up. Pyrrha tossed it back, giving it a lot of backspin so she’d have to step into the pass. A determined smile flashed over her lips. “The crowd’s gonna get bored watching you dribble. Maybe you should try to excite them by shooting the three?”

While trash-talking wasn’t her strong suit, the long distance shot wasn’t Weiss’ either, so it seemed well-matched. Pyrrha accompanied her words by taking a big step away, leaving plenty of room to take a shot. “I’ll have you know—”

Weiss’ response was cut short by the redhead’s sudden explosion. A jabstep, an arm shooting towards the falling dribble, and the ball bounced away from both of them. The resulting mad scramble rendered any conversation useless, as Pyrrha tipped the ball high over her diving opponent.

She caught it on the way down, squared up, and shot a _deep_ three that felt perfect leaving her hands—all before Weiss found her feet again. _swish_.

3-2. “Nikos Academy is in session. Never lose focus.” Pyrrha didn’t even notice the mounting volume in the gym as the crowd lost their collective shit.

“Too bad the benefits of Nikos Academy didn’t extend to the rest of Sanctum High. Otherwise, you might have been able to keep from being blown out in the final.”

Check. A jabstep, dribble, hesi-dribble into a crossover, and she was alone at the rim, tossing in an easy layup. 5-2.

“Don’t commit too early, you have to be able to react to my counter.”

Check. Three dribbles before she turned back-to-basket to take full advantage of her size and strength. A power dribble pushed Weiss just a little too far and the turnaround J barely moved the net on its way through. 7-2.

“Don’t get cocky, Achilles!” She couldn’t tell if the words were real or imagined.

Check.

Slow, low dribbles, as she watched Weiss carefully. The careful white braid was fraying, flyaways creating a halo effect as they reflected the court lighting. A headfake, two dribbles and pull-up found her rising without the ball after a quick swipe caught it on the gather.

She was still in the air when Weiss turned for another layup. 7-4.

“Butterfingers!”

She huffed, dismissive. She shook herself as she returned the check and lowered into her defensive stance. She was inches from blocking the 19-foot step-back, yet still helpless as it banked in off the backboard. 7-6.

“Awww. Is someone just a fraction too slow?”

This time, she let herself be slow, trailing by a hair as Weiss zipped towards the rim. She met the ball with both hands as it arced towards the basket, _bouncing_ it hard off the backboard. Jumping back, she caught the rebound, and shrugged her apology. “Sorry!”

Weiss’ expression darkened. Her only response? “ _Hmph!_ ” The crowd almost drowned it out. _“Pyyyyr-rha! Pyyyyr-rha!”_

She backpedaled, giving herself the space to accelerate. Three dribbles in, she stopped, using her off-hand, with the slightest pressure, to push Weiss away as she rose up. The ball rattled out, to a definite “ _Oooohhhh_ ”. Landing in the wrong position to recover the ball, she could only watch as Weiss brought the rebound to the corner and calmly drained the three.

7-9. The audience was in it now, equal parts jeering and cheering as the ball snapped through the net. "With that three, Weiss has secured another one _hundred_ and fifty lien for the Polendina Foundation’s essential work providing low-cost prosthetic aids to amputees and people born missing limbs or fingers!

“Our generous sponsors, Garin Technologies and A Little Wok, are donating an additional 25 lien each for every point scored in the match. Let’s hear a big thank you for Garin Technologies and A Little Wok!”

Weiss waited for the polite applause to die down before giving Pyrrha the ball for the check this time. When she returned it, no time was wasted as she drove to her left. But she overextended her leg by maybe an inch planting for a crossover and stumbled, losing her dribble.

The ball bounced out-of-bounds before either of them could dive after it.

Now Pyrrha checked the ball up. This time, she mirrored the game’s first possession. In and out, the ball alternated. Left, floor, right, floor, left. She waited, letting the rhythm solidify. Waiting for the moment.

where.  
Weiss.  
fell.  
for it.

She’d gotten comfortable with the pattern and reached in to poke the ball away, finding nothing but open air while the 5’10" redhead was streaking towards the rim.

With nothing between her and scoring, she went for broke. A deep penultimate step led into a jarringly locked leg, and she had the height. She grabbed on the rim with both hands as she flushed the ball through for the slam dunk.

That’s what kicked off the full volume of the crowd. Even the announcer struggled to make himself heard over the cacophony. _9-9_.

Weiss’ expression had hardened. Gone were the genuine—albeit aloof—smiles she’d managed to produce earlier. Her tone was no longer light when she spoke. “We get it. You can jump. Too bad that didn’t come with any grace.”

Her dribbles were drumbeats, tapping faster and faster. She pushed left, dragging Pyrrha with her. A jab and pull-back and her hands hit the floor, catching her as she stumbled forwards. The ball sailed through the basket behind her to thunderous applause.

9-11. “No grace or balance—I wonder what else your skills are missing? Manners? Focus?” Acid dripped with her words. And fire followed in her shot. Not even dribbling after receiving the check, she launched a set shot that easily slipped through the rim.

9-14. Do or die. Weiss might have continued to talk, but Pyrrha would remember no words. Check.

She ignored the ball—focusing on the movement of her opponents’ hips. Left, right, right, left, LUNGE. Her hand brushed the ball on its way up, knocking it back behind her opponent. Yet Weiss was the first to the goal, corralling the loose ball only an instant before Pyrrha would have swallowed it up. The dribble restarted, more frantic than before.

Weiss pushed for the rim, never getting a step passed the larger player, instead talking a wild shot up into her body. In a testament to her strength and control, the ball landed square on the back of the rim—and bounced. And bounced. Aaannd bounced.

After the third bounce—however, it’d gone just a hair to the left and rolled off the hoop into Pyrrha’s waiting hands.

On the way back to the three-point line, however, Weiss poked it free. Both chased after the untethered ball, pressing against each other, jostling to be the first to reach it. Instead their wrestling delayed them as the ball moved ever farther away from the pair. It was out of bounds—ball to Pyrrha.

Check. No words were left to be wasted, just two girls and a ball. With the ball back in her hands, the redhead went to work. The first jabstep didn’t even get a nibble, so she just went for it, using her long stride and superior acceleration to get the step on her defender. But Weiss wasn’t far behind, keeping pressure on her back. She wouldn’t get a clean shot on-balance so instead of the layup, she took her fourth dribble under the hoop, coming to a stop with her back to the rim and Weiss pushed up behind her.

Power Dribble. Power Dribble. _Power DRIBBLE_. She couldn’t dislodge the lower center-of-mass, so she faked left and stepped back to her right, aiming the shot to the upper-left of the box printed over the rim. It bounced in as she landed, hopping with her right leg still up, bent between them.

11-14.

Check. Chests heaving, the pair faced each other. Not a respite, but a standoff. Pyrrha stared the smaller girl down, looking for her target. For both an eternity and instant, they stood—waiting for the first move of this, the closing stages of their chessmatch.

The ball was light as it percussed against the floor and Pyrrha pulled the dribble off to the side of the court. They were still a ways from the basket, just inside the three point line. Getting to the spot was the easy part. As soon as she’d built the front this battle would be fought on, Weiss closed in.

She hounded the redhead. Probing hands reached in towards the ball on every dribble. Sometimes, she even touched the ball on its way down, but the bounce would always bring the ball back to Pyrrha’s waiting fingers.

A wild reach made contact on the way up, tossing the ball back to the middle of the court and the scramble was back on. Pyrrha was the first to it, with two hands on her back. A big dribble forwards, towards the opposite elbow, gives her the extra step she needs to pull away from Weiss’ smaller stride. She plant’s her right foot hard, pulling the dribble under her center. As her left hand gathered the rising ball, she could set her feet in place with Weiss still moving past her.

One girl’s hands hit the ground as the other’s released the ball at her apex.

_Swish_

13-14. All or nothing.

The ball barely touched her hands after the check. It didn’t need to. It was poetry, the completion of its arc as it whispered through the net contrasted with the unbounded din of the crowd. Their cheers drowned out the buzzer—drowned out the announcement that nearly 16 thousand lien would be donated to help homeless youth too.

But instead of basking in the exultation that she’d never gotten in tournament play, her attentions were narrowed only to her opponent, who’s emotions were _wrong_.

Weiss’ usual aloofness had been replaced. But it wasn’t with anger, nor frustration, resentment, nor sadness. Instead, she just looked drained. All remaining color had drained from her face of Atlesian alabaster. Hands on her knees, she spared nary a glance for the victor, her gaze drawn instead to the bleachers.

Pyrrha followed her eyes. Followed the line of their focus to the midcourt bleachers, where only two white-clad onlookers sat. One, a mirror image of the young woman less than five feet away, the other mustachioed and dour.

The man, who could only be Jaques Schnee, was studiously examining the shine of his own boots, rather than be presented with the sight of his defeated daughter.

* * *

Weiss stood, unmoving, under the locker-room shower. The water had long since run cold, but turning it off was one more step towards leaving, towards returning to Schnee Manor and having to listen to _him_. Instead of just sucking it up, instead of dealing with it, she just stood there as the world moved on without her.

“ _Ahem_.” The cough was intentional, not the natural choked exhale of a sick person. It was also a sound in a room she’d expected to stay empty, so Weiss jumped, startled.

She peeked beyond the curtain, seeing _Nikos_ there, an unreadable expression on her face.

“Are you all right?” The redhead’s tone was low, unthreatening.

“Of course I am!” she snapped, expression darkening.

“Are you sure? I mean, after the game…” Pyrrha trailed off.

She stepped towards the taller girl, forcing her towards the wall. “You beat me out there! Is that not enough for you? Are you so insecure that you need to be sure that I’m moping? That I’m so beaten up by losing that I’m crying in the shower? Is that what you want!?”

“Of course not! I just saw you looking at your Dad. Like he was—”

"I will have you know that I’m actually glad I lost! My heart wasn’t really in it for my charity. Dr. Polendina isn’t even involved in running it and it only gives prosthetics for members of wealthy families. It’s just yet another Atlas PR stunt!

“I’ll go back to beating you every time when we’re at school. Even your heroics fell short last year in the championship. They will, _again_ , when you try to take over for Cinder at Haven State. Honestly! Do you think that you can come close to comparing? She’s _The Maiden_ , and who are you? Just a girl who can dunk. Nothing more.”

They were inches away from each other, as Weiss never stopped advancing while she ranted, eating up the space between them as Pyrrha had nowhere to go, backed up against the wall.

“I’m sure you believe that, Weiss. But I beat you today, and I’ll do it again. Mark my words.”

“You win _once_ and you’ve suddenly developed a superiority complex, have you?”

Pyrrha’s gaze hardened at that. “Or maybe, now that you don’t have a team around you, your _god_ complex has finally come up against rock-solid evidence that you are only a human girl, and not the ordained savior of basketball?”

"Maybe if you spent four years where anything less than complete perfection, with both the Atlas City Championships and the Solitas Cup, was seen as abject failure, you’d have a bit of a god-complex too!

"Maybe if your father had both forbidden you from playing and then been disappointed that, going behind his back, you couldn’t match the prowess nor accomplishments of your older sister. Maybe if your team never saw you. Never really recognized you as a person. Never even deigned to ask how you were. Maybe then. Maybe then you’d have some idea of what I have to deal with!

A dam had burst within her as she said those words, and the tears that had not come for years, that she’d just beckoned with irony, were drawing hot trails down her cheeks.

Her hands, balled up in fists, fell softly into Pyrrha’s chest. Tension left both of them with the gentleness of the contact.

“I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with so much.” Pyrrha pulled her fists away, keeping her gaze pointedly above the smaller girl’s bare collarbone. “I know your family and upbringing have not made this easier for you.”

The warmth in her voice melted Weiss further into her hold. Hands were dropped, and shoulders pulled in instead.

“College will be a new beginning for you. The word ‘Schnee’ won’t have the same gravity there as it does here.”

Her lips were so close. Her face filled Weiss’ vision. “Not even a hundred thousand miles would let me be normal…”

Her voice was swallowed by something else as her hands found Pyrrha’s face. Cupping her, tracing from her jaws to her lips. Soft weight as she leaned into her touch.

And then any distance was too much separation. Tiptoes pushing her up, and strong fingers pulling closer. Lips crashed together and, for the first time, the Schnee name melted away.

Pyrrha’s embrace fell away, fingers burying themselves in silver-white hair. They fell back, slamming her against the wall.

Delicate fingers gained purchase in her jersey, and the tremendous ripping sound as Weiss pulled was drowned out by the roiling energy in her head as she felt rippling muscle under her touch.

_BANG! BANG!_

They jumped apart, the moment shattered. The door shook on its hinges. Whatever energy that had fueled them had vanished, escaped like the air from a punctured balloon with the interruption.

A towel was grabbed, and proffered with an averted gaze, with murmured apologies barely penetrating the dead air.

“WEISS!” A shrill voice. “We are leaving!”

A dress over her head. Damp hair left loose. A swinging door, and a tall girl left wondering.

* * *

_In the biggest news in sports, high school phenom Pyrrha Nikos has made a surprise de-committal from Haven State, instead choosing to accept a scholarship offer from Beacon University, joining Coco Adel, Yang Xiao Long, and Weiss Schnee to form what has to be the favorite for the championship this year._

_According to the_ Haven Star _, the superstar told reporters that she was impressed by their head coach’s pitch and was disappointed in HSU’s treatment of the Lionheart scandal. We’re joined now, by Jade Cairnduff, sports reporter for_ The Atlas Journal _. Jade, what’s your take on this surprising development?_

_"Well, Lisa, I’m pretty sure that this has very little to do with Coach Goodwitch. I have sources at HSU that believe that Miss Nikos wasn’t confident in her ability to live up to the pressure of falling in Cinder Fall’s footsteps. It’d be a hard act to follow, for sure. And Pyrrha has spent each of the last four years leading a team of middling quality to only fall just short in the finals to teams with far superior depth._

_“Surely, she’s angling to finally be able to lean on some of that depth herself.”_

_Thanks for that, Jade. What do you make of Beacon’s chances, now that their recruiting class includes three of the best high school players this year?_

_“Well, I’m concerned about fit, here. Nikos and Schnee are basically arch-rivals at this point, right? It’s hard to imagine them gelling immediately, and still harder to see them ceding ground to either Coco Adel or Yang Xiao Long. There’s only one ball in this game, and four colossal egos here.”_

_Thanks so much for your insight. Now let’s go to Peter Port, and his press conference on the Beacon U Men’s recruiting class!_

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to "The Promised Land", a college basketball AU for RWBY!
> 
> I'm going to be doing a few one-offs to start, but if there's a positive reception, I have so much material! I don't know how quickly that will be able to be converted to good prose, but kudos + comments = more writing :D
> 
> P.S. This is really my first foray into writing any sort of romance. I need advice lol.


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